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more Slackware 12.0 sound woes

Hi fellow slackers,
Yes, it's another alsa thread. I hate to do this, but I'm going nuts over trying to get sound to work on my system.

It is a new Lenovo Thinkpad T-61, with a new Slack 12.0 installation with the latest Dropline Gnome. I upgraded the kernel to 2.6.22.5 in order to get the video card working properly. I should have checked if sound worked before installing Dropline or upgrading the kernel, but I didn't. In fact I didn't even boot windoze before installing slack. So I have no idea if the sound worked in windows, in slack 12.0 without Dropline, or with the stock kernel. Not very scientific of me, I guess.

alsaconf finds the sound card with no problem:

Code:

hda-intel Intel Corporation 82801 (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller

lsmod shows the following modules loaded:

Code:

...

snd_seq_dummy          6788  0 

snd_seq_oss            32896  0 

snd_seq_midi_event    10112  1 snd_seq_oss

snd_seq                50672  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event

snd_seq_device        10508  3 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq

snd_pcm_oss            40832  0 

snd_mixer_oss          18048  1 snd_pcm_oss

...

snd_hda_intel        249240  4 

snd_pcm                66436  3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_hda_intel

snd_timer              22532  3 snd_seq,snd_pcm

snd                    47620  14 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm,snd_timer

snd_page_alloc        11528  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm

...

amixer info reports:

Code:

Card default 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xfe020000 irq 16'

  Mixer name    : 'Analog Devices ID 1984'

  Components    : 'HDA:11d41984 HDA:14f12bfa'

  Controls      : 2

  Simple ctrls  : 2

alsamixer does not show either of the two controls muted. In fact it doesn't let me toggle muting at all. the "m" key does nothing and there is no indication of whether or not each control is muted. Here's a screenshot. Seems like there should be more controls than that as well.

Music applications like audacious appear to play sound files, in that the bars bounce up and down as the file is playing, but no sound comes out of the speakers. Plugging in headphones does nothing either. There are some buttons for volume control and muting which also do nothing.

dmesg does not say anything about the soundcard that I can see...

I did try mucking around with the alsa-driver source code. I compiled the intel-hda driver and installed it, but that messed up too many other things like gnome and the alsa-utils. I had to recompile the kernel from the kernel source to fix those things.

At least now all that doesn't work is the sound.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions? I'd sure appreciate it at this point.

Thanks,
geo

Just found this in the changelog for kernel 2.6.23-rc1:

Code:

[ALSA] hda-codec - Fix Thinkpad X61/T61 outputs

    

    Enable EAPD bit on Thinkpad X61/T61.  The recent model requires it

    explicitly to make any sounds.  In future, it should be toggled

    automatically on demand.

    Also, added a beep volume/switch.  Some people like it although I

    don't understand why :)

I guess I'll just wait until the release moves beyond testing and try it out. I'll report back in case others are having this issue, which seems to be the case from a ton of googling I've done in the last few days.

Cheers,
-geo

Try this link: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HdaIntelSoundHowto - Read the section on manually specify module parameters. For Slack, edit the file /etc/modprobe.d/sound

For my situation, I set mine as:

Code:

options snd-hda-intel probe_mask=1 model=ref

I got my headphones working, but not the built-in stereo speakers (well, at least I got sound).

Good luck!

ghostdancer,
Thanks for the link and suggestions. I've been messing around with those options in /etc/modprobe.d/sound and can't find any that solve the problem. I'll keep trying other combinations and reread the appropriate docs....

I do think it is a problem with the alsa drivers in the kernel though, since the changelog for kernel 2.6.23rc1 mentions a couple of bugs with my exact card that might explain why I can not either mute or unmute the controls, and why there are so few controls:

Code:

[ALSA] hda-codec - Fix Oops with AD1984 thinkpad model

    

    Fixed Oops with AD1984 thinkpad model.  Also fixed the wrong

    init verbs for NID 0x03 and 0x04, which have apparently no mute

    bit.



[ALSA] hda-codec - Fix wrong mixer controls for AD1984 thinkpad model

    

    Fixed the wrong mixer controls for AD1984 thinkpad model.

Which soundcard do you have? Anyone else with the AD1984 get it to work yet?

-geo

I am using Sigmatel 9228, not the same chip as yours. Even though it use the same snd-hda-intel module, it seems to be a nightmare for configuration and setup.

For my case, I am using Dell Vostro 1400 laptop (I understand it seems to be new model from Dell, new hardware?). Anyway, I may try out the kernel rc this weekend and see if can solve my problem.

By the way, reading from the ALSA-Configuration.txt, I cannot find AD1984, but I found:

Code:

AD1981

          basic        3-jack (default)

          hp            HP nx6320

          thinkpad      Lenovo Thinkpad T60/X60/Z60

          toshiba      Toshiba U205

You can give model=thinkpad a try, but I can't be sure if it can solve your problem.

Yes that was my first attempt at configuration, but I have a T-61 which is a newer machine as well. I guess just have to be patient and try a new kernel -- the full release should be out soon. Good luck with the latest-greatest kernel rc! And let us know if it solves your problems.

-geo

I downloaded 2.6.23-rc4 and give it a try for my system. It does not solve my problem, my laptop built-in speaker just won't work.

Just my luck...

Quote:

Originally Posted by ghostdancer (Post 2877040)

I downloaded 2.6.23-rc4 and give it a try for my system. It does not solve my problem, my laptop built-in speaker just won't work.

Just my luck...

On mine, two outputs show in Alsamixer... one called "Front" and one called "Headphone". Guess which one is actually tied to the built-in speakers... :/

Moral: Unmute both and set them to 80%.

I download the latest RC from ALSA, and it fixed all my problem! Hurrah!

http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Main_Page

Quote:

Originally Posted by evilDagmar (Post 2878606)

On mine, two outputs show in Alsamixer... one called "Front" and one called "Headphone". Guess which one is actually tied to the built-in speakers... :/

Moral: Unmute both and set them to 80%.

The strange thing on my laptop, I have two output for Headphones. One is call Front and one is call Surround. There is no option call "Headphone".

The problem is not my headphone, the problem is the built-in speakers. But it get resolve by using the latest RC from ALSA. However, I had to change the model from ref to 3stack.

OKay, so this still supports the theory of "If you have Intel-HDA you'd better chase the 0day for ALSA until it works".

I just had to apply a patch to esound last night to work around one of the bugs that was going so far as to crash my entire laptop if a logout sound was playing as the screen changed modes upon logout. Joyful.

Quote:

Originally Posted by evilDagmar (Post 2878616)

OKay, so this still supports the theory of "If you have Intel-HDA you'd better chase the 0day for ALSA until it works".

Yupe, that seems to be the case.

Quote:

Originally Posted by evilDagmar (Post 2878616)

I just had to apply a patch to esound last night to work around one of the bugs that was going so far as to crash my entire laptop if a logout sound was playing as the screen changed modes upon logout. Joyful.

OK...

BTW, are you the Dagmar that I know at Dropline?

If you are, I am Lenrek, if you are not, that is OK. :)

ghostdancer,
glad you got your sound, um sort of, fixed. I just finished installing kernel 2.6.23-rc5 (didn't want to wait for the stable release...) and I'm happy to report that the sound issues are fixed!!! All I did was build a new kernel with the alsa stuff including the brand new intel-hda module, as modules, install the modules and then the kernel image, add a new entry in lilo.conf, run lilo, reboot (with fingers crossed, etc.) and presto -- sound works (after unmuting the mixer channels of course). Woohoo!! Thanks all you kernel developers out there!

-geomatt

### edit ### Just read evilDagmar's post -- I'll let you know if ALSA keeps working for me in the long run...